


Her Father

by krasnoe_solnishko



Category: Maleficent (Disney Movies)
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Father and daughter feels, Parental Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 18:42:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21733276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krasnoe_solnishko/pseuds/krasnoe_solnishko
Summary: A moment between a father and a daughter.
Relationships: Aurora & Diaval (Disney), Aurora/Diaval (Disney), Diaval/Maleficent (Disney)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 201





	Her Father

**Author's Note:**

> A lot of thanks to Jeslieness who has checked the text for me so little inaccuracies won't spoil the fun for you.

"You should tell her, you know?" 

Diaval turned around startled. Soft strands of his dark hair flew up and resettled in their usual disarray. 

Aurora smiled knowingly. She had caught him. If it even could be called thus considering he hadn't been hiding. 

"What are you afraid of?" 

Diaval didn't insult her by pretending that he hadn't understood what she had been talking about. He just moved aside on the bench making some room for her which she accepted readily. 

Both yet had to glance in the direction where Maleficent had been engaged in an a quiet conversation with a handsome faerie. Diaval quite pointedly avoided Aurora's questioning eyes. 

She sighed and lowered her head on his shoulder. It was bony but solid and there was no other place on Earth she would have rather been at that moment. If only she could ease his pain. Erase his doubts. Make him see what seemed obvious to her. 

She never knew her real father but she was never fatherless, never felt loveless. As unconventional as her childhood had been, it had been full of joy and carefree happiness. There were few entertainments in the forest but the ones she had invented herself. Plain observation of the wildlife made her days pass by quickly, filling her soul with gentleness and love for every living creature. She didn't have toys - or not the kind that children in the castle had. She didn't know other playmates but a sun ray leading her around the meadow, little rabbits hightailing from her had she tried to come closer, or her own shadow. Still she never felt bored, always content and full of wonder. Wildlife ran its course accepting her as one of them.

Everything around her seemed to have its purpose. Flowers blossomed to make her smile, raindrops fell from the sky to make the air fresh and pleasant, birds chirruped flying from one branch to another making her very soul sing, and she was utterly fascinated with the simplicity of their existence as uncomplicated as her own was.

Why would she have questioned the regular presence of a black raven - never too far away, just out of the corner of her eye? He was as constant as the century-old trees or the Sun rising from behind the forest. Aurora was so used to his being nearby, his continual watching her with his unnerving, preternaturally still eyes, the noise of his wings beating fussily, his disgruntled cawing - all of which was as dear to her heart as a mother's embrace would have been to anybody else. 

Aurora had never really given a thought to how fragile her raven really was. Not until she saw him as a human - standing by her godmother's side as if it was the only place he could possibly belong. She had always seen him as someone of hers: her raven, her only true friend, her constant guardian. But she had been mistaken. He had been taken long before she had been born.

One could think that she begrudged him his loyalty to the magnificent faerie, but Aurora was generous for she also felt the same pull as he had to have felt and there was nothing in the world she wouldn't have given to draw a rare sincere smile to her godmother's face. 

So she forgave Diaval his utmost devotion to Maleficent and found contentment in the knowledge that she had her own hold on his tender heart. 

She grew. And as she was growing, everything she had come to believe true was rapidly spinning out of control. Her godmother turned out to be the one who had robbed her of her family, her future, her very life; her father - an obsessed and cruel madman; her people (for it appeared that she had her own people) were petty, fearful and thoroughly misled. She herself had to take on the role of a queen - and so overextended was she in that role she hardly recognised herself anymore - a child of a forest, a light spirit, a wild soul. Rarely could she allow herself a day off - off her numerous and complex duties, off people's expectations - to visit the Moors. And every time she did visit them, she felt the distance between her godmother and herself growing bigger. 

Aurora fell in love.

Maleficent despised love. 

Aurora felt guilty for being so obviously, so innocently happy and at the same time there was underlying anger - an emotion that had been foreign to her before. Maleficent seemed petty and acted pettily. She had been wronged and had armed herself against all and everyone. There was little else Aurora wanted more than for her godmother to make peace with the world - but there was still that little bit of resentment. A little bit of grievance. There had to have been! Or else how could she have been misled so easily by Ulstrid's queen, turned against the one whom she loved as the mother she had never truly known. 

All this was now in the past. Everything was forgiven. There was a new light in Maleficent's eyes, a new purpose to how she held herself. She seemed reborn and to some extent she had been, hadn't she? She was freer in a way Aurora had never seen her be. Maybe that's who she had been before Stefan. 

Aurora couldn't begrudge Diaval his cautiousness around her. His life was to change again and everything was at stake - much more than when he had been just a simple raven. Her honest, proud and cautious bird. Never cautious enough, though, to have guarded his heart against the amazing force of nature that Maleficent was. 

Aurora rubbed her cheek against the coarse cloth of his cloak and huddled up to him. His earthy smell, his solid frame, something enexplicably Diavalish about him never ceased to calm her mind. She pressed against him even more and felt some of his pent up tension leaving his body. 

"My pretty pretty bird," she cooed tenderly as she had when she was a child. 

He chuckled. 

"Hardly a bird anymore considering how much time I spend as a human."

Aurora smiled. 

"I like you in this form. I like you in any form but this one is my favourite."

Diaval looked pleased and flattered by her praise. Aurora raised her chin and placed it on his shoulder. 

"I wish you happiness," she whispered hotly. "I wish you all the happiness in the world." He turned his head to glance at her and she met his gaze. His eyes shone wetly. 

"But I am happy," was all he said. 

Aurora shook her head with a sad look on her face. 

"I am," insisted Diaval. "I have lived three times a raven's lifespan, I have seen and felt far more than I had been meant to. I have got a caring, kind, intelligent girl for a ward and I have watched her turning into a wonderful woman. I have loved," he stumbled on these words for a second then made himself speak them again: "I have loved. What more could I ask for?" 

Aurora immediately rose up and wrapped her arms around his neck. She was as naturally tactile as Diaval was naturally reserved. 

"You could ask to be loved in return. You could ask to be cared for! You deserve it more than anyone!" She kissed his cheek sweetly. 

His arms closed around her and she felt his heart beating wildly in his ribcage. 

"Thank you," she heard. The words were quiet but full of warmth and gratitude. "I am blessed with such a loving child." 

"Fledgling," she corrected him teasingly. 

"What?" 

"Your fledgling - that's how you usually call me. That's what I am."

Tears were sliding freely down his cheeks. Aurora felt overwhelmed. Happy. Sad. Full of violent energy. Full of desperate tenderness.

There had been so many moments in her life which had all been about her Godmother, about Maleficent. All hurt had been for her, all love had been for her, all tragedies, fears, hopes, insecurities. But this, this precious moment was only theirs: Aurora's and her raven's. The moment of understanding.

For he was her father, her protector, her loyal friend no matter whether Maleficent would keep him around or let him go. Because that was his main concern, wasn't it? Would Maleficent keep him around now that she wasn't alone anymore? Now that she had found so much more than she had ever had before - her people, a sense of belonging. Or would she have no use for her faithful servant? 

Aurora took Diaval's face in her hands and spoke slowly and insistently. 

"You should tell her!" 

**Author's Note:**

> Unluckily, not a native speaker.


End file.
